“Why didn’t you?”
“You were with Layla back then.”
“Fuck,” I tugged on my beard, shaking my head, thinking back to that time. “We’ve been wasting time for too long.”
“But what if this doesn’t work?” she asked, her voice just above a whisper. “What if we try this shit and it falls apart and we can’t even be friends anymore?"
“Then wemakeit work ‘cause I’m not going back to pretending I don’t want you. I can’t do that shit, Stormie, not after tonight.”
She was quiet again, hesitation flickering in her eyes. I sensed her fear as she spoke. “I’m scared of this changing everything. I’m scared… of not being enough.”
“Not being enough?” I repeated, genuinely confused. “Storm, you’re everything to me. You’ve always been everything.”
“But what if–”
“Nah,” I interrupted. “No ‘what ifs.’ I’m all in with you. You understand that? I’m not playing games and keeping my options open. I’m not doing that casual shit. I want all of you, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to keep you forever.”
She looked at me for a long moment, searching my face for something. “You really mean that?”
“Hell yeah.”
“So what happens now?”
“Now, we take shit one day at a time.”
“And if people ask…”
“Then we tell them the truth,” I said. “We’re together.”
Storm smiled slightly. “You make it sound so simple.”
“‘Cause it is,” I said. “Just be mine, Stormie.”
She leaned up and kissed me, and when she pulled back, she was smiling. I pulled her closer, pressing a kiss to her forehead. We stayed like that for a minute. The rest of the worlddidn’t exist to me. It was just the two of us in this cabin, finally being honest about what we’d been hiding for years.
Then the lights flickered, and Storm’s whole body tensed up. The lights flickered again, then suddenly blazed to life–the overhead light, the lamp in the corner, everything. The hum of the refrigerator kicked on. The digital clock on the microwave blinked 12:00. The power was back.
“Well,” she breathed deeply, blinking in the sudden brightness. “That’s... fucked up timing.”
I laughed. “Facts. Ruining the vibe and shit.”
She sat up, looking around the cabin like reality was flooding back in. “Guess the storm’s lightening up.” She looked at me, and I could see the uncertainty creeping back in. Like the darkness had been protecting us, and now that it was gone, she was remembering all the reasons we’d kept our distance.
“Aye,” I said, reaching for her hand. “This doesn’t change anything.”
“The power coming back?”
“Yeah. The storm ending. The weekend eventually being over. None of that changes what just happened, what we just said to each other.”
She squeezed my hand. “I know.”
“Do you? ‘Cause this is real now, baby. You’re officially mine, Storm. I mean that shit.”
She smiled, and this time it reached her eyes. “Yours, huh?”
“You got a problem with that?”
“No. Ilovethe sound of that.”